Food Fridays: A Taste of the Himalayas in Tropical Singapore

Some like it hot, and, well, when it comes to Nepalese cooking, some like it very hot.

Gaurav Raghuvanshi/The Wall Street Journal

Gurkha Palace captures the ambiance of a Himalayan restaurant, with its food served on rimmed brass plates called thali and water in brass glasses.

As a child, I was a wimp when it came to hot and spicy. I remember my mom rinsing the chicken prepared by our Nepalese cook with water before I could eat it, and yet even then I found it very hot.

My tolerance for chili has grown over the years, enough to make me wish the “Spicy Khukura” (chicken) at Gurkha Palace in Singapore lived up a bit more to its billing. I can only think the chef is toning the dish down to appeal to a more international, possibly Western palate.

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Gurkha Palace on Chander Road is tucked away in a relatively quiet corner of the bustle of Singapore’s Little India. It’s the sort of place you might stumble on while wandering. We went by reference, and the experience was mixed.

The place has the right ambiance for a Himalayan restaurant. Food is served on rimmed brass plates called “thali” and water in brass glasses. A garlanded picture of the former royal family of Nepal, killed in a June 2001 massacre, adorns the wall. Alongside is a picture of a “Kumari,” or living goddess.

Some sects in Nepal worship pre-pubescent girls as manifestations of the divine female energy, or “devi,” in Hindu religious traditions, according to Padam Thapa, 39, one of the partners who own the restaurant.

The opposite wall has two large posters of Himalayan peaks. The Buddhist symbol of the meditating eyes of Buddha — not fully open and not fully closed – is on the glass panes of the entrance door.

A liquor cabinet displays a range of spirits and two bottles of Nepalese rum in bottles shaped liked a “Khukhri” — the traditional Nepalese knife with an inward curving edge. That rum, however, is purely for display.

Gaurav Raghuvanshi/The Wall Street Journal

Gurkha Palace in Singapore serves traditional Nepalese dishes, but a native of Nepal may wish they were spicier. Here are poori, Gurkhali Lamb and Spicy Khukura.

The first dish we tried was “Choyla,” a roasted chicken salad marinated with spices and garnished with mustard oil. It is served with crispy beaten rice, called “Chewda” in north India and Nepal. The original recipe uses duck meat, which is so tender that marinating itself makes it soft and it needs no cooking. However, at Gurkha Palace, grilled chicken is used, which is not a bad substitute. In Nepal also, meats ranging from chicken to pork are used for Choyla, with raw onions and tomatoes. The Choyla at Gurkha Palace (recipe below) is quite good, and the dressing in the salad is very different from what we are accustomed to.

The restaurant is pretty quiet on normal days, but it was catering to a big group on the night we went. That slowed down the service, and the beer took ages to arrive.

The main course of “Gurkhali Lamb” and “Spicy Khukura” with buttered naan and “Poori” — a deep-fried bread — ticked most of the boxes for authentic dishes, well, except for being less spicy than food served in Nepal.

The lamb was the best dish, the pieces succulent and the flavor of smoke coming through quite distinctly. The huge poori was perfect — fully inflated and rightfully crispy. But one of the naan breads was not fully done.

The pricing is pretty reasonable, with most of the meat dishes listed just under 10 Singapore dollars (US$8.06) and a serving that makes a very hungry stomach happy.

A bottle of beer is listed at S$9 and regular Scotch whisky for S$7 for a standard 25 ml measure. Coke and bottled water come for S$2 each and “Lassi,” a yogurt shake, for S$3.

The restaurant was started in 2002, but was bought and is now run by a new partnership between Padam Thapa and Dil Bahadur Gurung.

Overall, Gurkha Palace is a nice experience that brings back some of the tastes and flavors of my childhood. Except, if my childhood cook, “Bishan,” were the chef at Gurkha Palace, my mother would have admonished him for the food being too “seethe” (bland ).

Recipe for Chicken Choyla:

Ingredients:

2 lbs boneless chicken thighs

2 tablespoons of roasted cumin seed powder

One tablespoon of coriander powder

One tablespoon of red paprika

One tablespoon of red chili flakes

5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

One inch ginger, finely chopped

One onion, finely chopped.

3 tablespoons of mustard oil

One teaspoon of fenugreek and cumin seeds each

Fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped

3-4 green chilies, finely chopped

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

One lb of roasted beaten rice

4-5 thick half slices of cucumber

Preparation:

Marinate the chicken with one tablespoon of oil, one tablespoon of cumin powder and one tablespoon of coriander powder. Add salt and pepper to taste and set aside for 45 minutes. Then grill the chicken, preferably over charcoal. Let the chicken cool and then dice it into half-inch pieces.

In a mixing bowl, combine the chicken pieces with one tablespoon of uncooked mustard oil, roasted cumin powder, paprika and crushed chilies, chopped onion, ginger, a little over half of the garlic, onion, green chilies and green coriander. For garnishing, heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan. Crackle the cumin and fenugreek seeds, add the rest of the finely chopped garlic and toss this mixture into the mixing bowl.

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